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Orientalism on the one hand contributed to the mine of information on the orient and on the other it has created a subjective imagery of the ground reality. The tournament of shadows (Balshaya Igra) or the Great Game was a struggle between British India and Tsarist Russia for political ascendancy in Central Asia. Many writers on both sides wrote about that shadowy war and gave a portrayal of Central Asia and north-western periphery of British India. At the end of a long tussle Central Asia was colonized by Russia and the borders of Afghanistan were demarcated as a result of the 1907 Anglo-Russian Convention benefitting both the contending Empires. Arthur Connolly coined the term Great Game and Rudyard Kipling fictionalized it in Kim (1901) In comparative perspective one can see discourse on the virtues of the Russian Empire in Dostoevsky`s a Writer's Diary. Victorian travelogues carry rich information about the natural and human resources along the Durand line. These writings considerably influenced those who wrote after them about the region. In the Victorian age of British history many British writers visited the Durand Line Region. They wrote a lot about the natural and human resources of the area. These writings are considered as the first reference point about the terrain and its dwellers, and have thus helped in creating a particular image of the region`s inhabitants. Some travel writings are analyzed in this connection. The selected Victorian travelogues are Alexander Burnes` “Cabool, being a personal narrative of a journey to, and residence in that city in the years 1836-39”; James Atkinson`s “The expedition into Afghanistan”; Henry Walter Bellew`s “‘Journal of the political mission to Afghanistan in 1857”; Robert Warburton`s “Eighteen years in the Khyber 1879- 1898” and T.L. Pannell`s “Among the wild tribes of the Afghan Frontier.” The paper argues that the notion of wild and uncivilized people of the area in the western media is not just the product of contemporary political developments in the region but also a corollary of the Orientalists colonial memories, primarily acquired through the British Victorian travelogues in the context of the tournament of shadows particularly the first and second Anglo-Afghan wars. To augment the view, it also evaluated the portrayal of local folks in those travelogues in the context of Hobson`s “the Eastern Origins of Western Civilization”; J. M. Blaut, “the Colonizer`s Model of the World” and Edwards Said, “Orientalism”.

Waqar Ahmad , Zahid Anwar. (2019) Orientalism And Depiction Of Muslims Of Pak-Afghan Region In Victorian Travelogues During The Tournment Of Shadows, Al-Azhāar, Volume 5, Issue 2.
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